The Joys of Being a Parent
by ToxiNeena
Summary: Oh, there were plenty of perks to being a mother or a father; it was always nice to hear those comments about how one's son looked so adorable or how well he behaved. However, just because there were perks, did not necessarily mean that it was easy. No.


**The Joys of being a Parent**

_**Be sure to read the bottom notes for a very long explanation as to why I've been inactive lately, thank you :)**_

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Oh, there were plenty of perks to being a mother or a father; it was always nice to hear those comments about how one's son looked so adorable or how well he behaved. However, just because there were perks, did not necessarily mean that it was easy. No. No, no, and just plain; no.

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"Gene! Look at mummy!" a mousy brown haired mother called to her only son. She was knelt down on one knee, holding a small video camera that belonged to her husband. "Look Gene, look at me!" she kept calling to get the toddler's attention.

Finally, the small boy turned his head to look at his mother. "Mummy!" he squealed, and the woman erupted into a fit of giggles; she tried her hardest to keep the camera steady with her shaky hands.

"Gene, look at the camera and say hi," his mother laughed while pressing the small recorder into his face. Gene cocked his head to the side as he often did when he was curious and reached out towards the video camera. "Say 'hi daddy!'"

"Hi 'addy!" he echoed before putting his tiny fist in front of the lens.

"No, no, don't touch daddy's camera," Gene's mother scolded halfheartedly. She was so caught up in playing with her son and laughing that she never noticed the pair of feet behind her.

"Mai," the stoic voice said as a greeting and a question in unison.

Mai stayed put but swiveled her head around to look at her husband with bright caramel colored eyes. "Naru, you're home! Look at Gene!" the woman squealed merrily. Naru, dressed in all black, peered over his wife's petite form and nearly fell over. "Isn't he the most adorable thing in the world? Just look at him!"

"I'm looking at him," Naru assured his wife as he pinched the bridge of his nose. How Mai would get a kick out of this sort of thing, he would never know.

"Isn't he just so adorable?" she repeated.

"You think covering our son…in _desitin_…is adorable?" the former director of Shibuya Physic Research clarified incredulously.

Mai scoffed. "Oh, posh. I didn't do it, he did it to himself."

While the two young parents were talking, Gene looked from his mother, to his father—who he resembled very much. "'addy!" He cooed before running up to Naru and clamping himself on the man's leg, desitin covered and all.

"Gene, it's impolite to touch people when you're so filthy…" he muttered before cautiously patting his son's head, trying to avoid the desitin clumps. The toddler merely giggled.

Mai—who still had the camera—kneeled back down to Gene. "Gene, tell mummy where you got that stuff," she instructed calmly, still holding the video camera.

"Bed!" he exclaimed, still attached to his father's leg.

"Really? I'm pretty sure I put it on that really high dresser, all the way at the top. Did you pull out the drawers and climb up to the top?" The brunette's eyes twinkled in unspoken laughter.

"Nuh-uh, the bothum," Gene mumbled around his grin.

Naru raised an eyebrow and knelt down as well. "You just told your mother that it was on your bed," he stated while letting his son grab his torso in an awkward hug.

"No," the boy lied, clearly amused.

Mai glanced at Naru, small chuckles coming from her own mouth. This time, she aimed the camera so both her son and her husband were in the shot. "Did you put it on yourself?" she asked as Gene used his father as a human jungle gym.

"No."

"Then where did all the cream go?" this time, his father asked him; by now, amusement was even seeping into the ever stoic director of BSPR. His own child—actually being smarter than most his age—would never cease to amuse him.

"Don' know, it emp'y."

"Really?" Mai laughed and zoomed closer on her son's face.

"Did you know that if you lie to your mother a fib monster will come and eat you?" Naru teased the small child—the joke was only known to him and his wife, however, their child took it quite seriously it seemed.

Gene shook his head.

"Yep, daddy's right, if you lie to mummy, a big, purple fib monster is going to get you."

At this, the boy began to tear up and sniffle. "I sowwy, mummy! I lie!" he cried.

Of course, this only made Mai outright laugh, even Naru spared a few chuckles.

A few weeks later

"Mai—tea," the familiar call came from the office in the house while Mai was already in the kitchen.

"Yeah, yeah, tea," she murmured absentmindedly and began to fill the kettle with fresh water.

As usual, it took around five minutes before the tea was servable, and as she poured it into a cup, she swore she heard a soft 'plop' but quickly dismissed it seeing as she was practically dead on her feet. Mai hadn't gotten any sleep at the night before as Gene had refused to go to bed.

"Here." The brunette placed the tea on his desk and walked out of the office with a large yawn.

Not even two minutes later, Naru called for her with an irritated, "Mai!"

She sighed, dropped the folders she had been filing, and stumbled into the office again with sleep deprived eyes. "Yes?" the word was mumbled.

"Why is there a goldfish in my tea?"

"Pardon?" Mai blinked a few times, swearing that she must be hearing things because of her lack of sleep.

Naru handed her his cup and folded his hand in front of his chin, waiting for her reaction. Sure enough, at the bottom of the cup sat the family goldfish, Goldilocks. Goldilocks was the name their son, Gene, had given to the poor goldfish that had been so cruelly turned into fishy tea.

"Did you suddenly decide to experiment and try to combine coffee and sushi?"

Mai ignored her husband's offset comment and stared disdainfully down at the poor thing. "Gene's going to be so upset," she whispered dejectedly and walked over to the bathroom in the office. Her husband watched as she poured the contents of the cup inside the toilet and flushed with a frown.

And, as if on cue, Gene stumbled through the doorway, face red from having run for so long. "Mummy, daddy, where Goldi?" he asked.

"Uh…" his mother started from inside the bathroom, ensure of how to proceed.

"Gene."

The boy turned to glance at his father with a smile.

"You put the fish in the kettle didn't you?"

"Uh-huh!" He beamed proudly. "Goldi's tank too cwowded, I put in 'der becuth mummy putted wather in 'der."

The parents sighed in unison.

Three days later

Mai was sitting at the dinner table with her son, who had refused to eat the desert his grandmother had oh-so-kindly made for him—cookies. "Gene, listen to mummy and eat your cookies!" she tried once again, holding out the treat.

"No!" he shouted defiantly with a pout.

Cookies, it seemed, were the boy's worst nightmare. Sure, Gene would eat broccoli just fine, but cookies? Ha. Mai was at her wits end.

This is what Naru came home to see; his wife trying to get their son to eat sugary sweets. She held them in front of his mouth, trying to coax the boy into opening his mouth, but this proved pointless as the child only refused even more defiantly than before. Why she was forcing Gene to eat cookies was beyond him entirely. Sweets only rotted one's teeth.

"Be a good boy and eat your cookies!" Mai cried.

"No! Cookies are ewwie!"

Naru cringed at the word. He would have to have a talk with his son later—no son of his would say 'ewwie' more than once in their lifetime, Naru would make sure of that.

"Belschnickels will come and hit you with sticks at Christmas if you don't!"

Naru blinked before sighing and walking away—something's would never change.

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_**Hi hi! Neena here :D**_

_**Okay, so I took a look at this after not reading/paying any attention to it for over a year, and let me just say...O...M...G. It was horrid. Like, bad, bad, bad! ACk, I can't believe I got so many reviews for such a crappily written oneshot. Anywhoser, I'm updating this now because I nearly cried. **_

_**As for those who are reading My Soul to Take, I have something to say to you all:**_

_**I'M SO SORRY i'M SUCH A HORRIBLE PERSON! I haven't updated in forever because my computer broke (somehow, I managed to blow up my IP address o.O) so I had to send it to my uncle all the way accross the country for repairs and it took months upon months upon months! Needles to say, I'm so sorry for making you all wait so long! D: I will hopefully be updating again by the weekend :) And, if you even care, I've finished writing MST! It has a total of 16 chapters (short, I know, but please bear with it) and I'm also currently writing the sequel. SO if you like MST, then please excuse my laptop's lousy sense of timing and be prepared for updating and a sequel!**_

_**That's all for now (and if you actually read all of this, then I commend you ^.^)**_

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_**...  
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_**Edited: 9/7/12  
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